


Disappointment and Dismay

by skim_milk



Series: random little Miraculous fics [10]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste Is Sunshine, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Happy Ending, Identity Reveal, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Identity Reveal, accidental reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:46:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28215690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skim_milk/pseuds/skim_milk
Summary: "Yes, it's me. I'm Ladybug. Are you — disappointed? Now that you know?"He let out a long breath, looked away. "I never in a million years thought I ever could be. But the honest truth, Marinette? Yes, I am."
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: random little Miraculous fics [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1767442
Comments: 26
Kudos: 145





	Disappointment and Dismay

**Author's Note:**

  * For [InkyCoffee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkyCoffee/gifts).



> Once again I seen a prompt by the lovely [Lou](https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkyCoffee/pseuds/InkyCoffee) and of course I had to write it. It would be a sin to not to.
> 
> Shout out to [Khanofallorcs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khanofallorcs/pseuds/Khanofallorcs) and [Enteaa/Kizerain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kizerain) for beta reading for me.

Despite knowing that it should never happen, Marinette had still imagined how her partner would react to her revealing her identity to him. The scenarios that played out in her head ranged from excitement to anger, shock to anguish. But of course, when it did happen, it was nothing like she had ever imagined — if only Chat Noir could stick to his script.

Time had never been a friend to Marinette, the girl who was constantly late for everything; it seemed only rational that her Miraculous timed out in the middle of an alley, which also happened to be the very same one that Chat had thought was an ideal place to detransform. Luckily, he hadn’t had any need for his Cataclysm to defeat the akuma, and so was under no risk of transforming back at any given second. Marinette, however, was not so lucky. 

She had barely made it into the alley when she detransformed the moment her feet planted firmly on the ground. “Shit,” she huffed. “That was close.”

“Umm…” a voice echoed behind her, and she knew that the sound was not from Tikki, whom she unceremoniously stuffed into the bag that hung by her side, before spinning around and seeing who she was sharing an alley with.

Chat Noir.

“I wasn’t— you just— and then— I didn’t mean—”

“Chat,” Marinette sighed. “It’s fine. My fault, not yours, I guess,” he nodded slowly. “But this stays between us, yeah?”

He nodded, “um, of course.” She noticed how he fiddled with his hands, constantly moving and twitching, as though the gloves of his suit were filled with ants, annoyingly scurrying around, tickling and itching and irritating his skin. 

“So, Marinette,” he began cautiously, saying her name (her real name) slowly, as if experimenting with how each of the syllables sat on his tongue. “You’re Ladybug…”

She couldn’t look him in the eyes, and in her periphery, she saw his eyes looking anywhere else but her and knew he felt the same — that they couldn’t make eye contact, doing so would fill their bodies with too many awkward teenage nerves. “Yeah,” she nodded her head slowly. “Yes, it’s me. I’m Ladybug,” she waited for a moment and made the mistake of looking towards him to find him doing the same, their eyes locking — to look away now would be worse than making eye contact in the first place. His green eyes flooded with something she had never seen from him before, an emotion she couldn’t place on him. 

“Are you—” she pressed. “Are you disappointed?” she asked, and his head tilted slightly to the side, the same way she would imagine an actual cat doing. “Now that you know who I am?”

He released a long breath and looked away, and in breaking their connection Marinette realised what it was she saw within him. “You know,” he began slowly, eyes fixing on the wall to his right, bringing his arms up and crossing them, effectively closing himself off from her. “I never, not in a million years, thought that I ever could be,” Marinette finally looked away from him, staring off into the distance over his shoulder, but not focusing on anything in particular. She brought an arm up and clutched onto the opposite elbow, drawn in and shrunken. “But honestly, Marinette? Yeah, I am.”

She didn’t respond verbally, fearing that if she did her voice would give away just how much his words were affecting her, and nodded vaguely instead. 

“Marinette, I have spent the longest time watching you, supporting you, adoring you, as Ladybug and as Marinette. So yeah, I guess I’m disappointed about a couple of things,” he told her.

A few tears rolled down her cheeks, but she felt almost incapable of moving her arms to wipe them away. “Oh, like what?” she questioned, her voice breaking. “Why don’t you list them out? Tell me what I’m doing wrong now.”

She heard him sigh, heard him take a step closer, saw him uncross his arms. “Well, to start,” he says. “This.”

“This?” 

“Yes,” he answered. “This. The thing you do where you doubt yourself, where you automatically think others are thinking the worst of you, and therefore you’re thinking you need to do the same.” She felt her head tilt slightly as she once again made eye contact with him. “Plot twist Princess, everyone adores you. You’re Marinette Dupain-Cheng, you’re the person that all the guys want and all the girls wanna be…” he smirked at her. “ And well some of the girls probably want you too…” she smiled a little, which was obviously what he had been aiming for as he smiled back at her, taking another step closer to her. 

“And now,” he pushes on. “I find out that you’re Ladybug as well; and I won’t spill some bullshit about how everyone loves you, because you should already know that. And I know that, sure, there is a certain level of stress that comes with the job, worrying about the ifs and buts — trust me, I know. But out of all the people in this goddamn city, there is not a single person who could be Ladybug half as well as you do.” He released a breath through his nose that imitated a single chuckle. “And that’s not even me trying to flirt, that’s just me telling the truth.”

She rolled her eyes and managed to bring up a hand to wipe at the tears that remained in the corners of her eyes. 

“Marinette, the things I’m disappointed about aren't that you are Ladybug. I mean, yes but also no… just, hear me out,” He told her and he took a deep breath, brushing a gloved hand through his hair while he gathered his thoughts. “Look, I’ve never had many friends, not as Chat and not as… my civilian self. But I’ve always counted you as one… well as two, I guess.”

“Look,” he said. “If we’re being honest, my civilian self isn’t me. I’m not wearing a mask when I go out as Chat, because Chat is me. Sure, sometimes I over-exaggerate some points, but in my normal daily life, that’s where I really wear a mask. Day in and day out, it’s like I’m a puppet and my father holds all the strings, his secretary has written the script of my entire life,” Chat shared. His words were raw and she knew he meant them, but more importantly, she knew he’d never spoken them before. “All of it except Chat — except you.” It was his turn to cry now, tears welling in his eyes.” Marinette, you’ve been a friend to me, both as Marinette and as Ladybug. So if I’m disappointed about anything, it’s the fact that I thought I had two friends, when, really, it was only one.”

She wanted to speak but he cut her off with a chuckle. “I know, that’s not your fault, and that’s fine — honestly I feel I need to apologise for the same thing.” he stopped to let Marinette mull over what he had said — does that mean she knew him as a civilian? That they were perhaps friends? She tried to push the thought out of her head. 

“So you see,” he pressed on. “While I may be disappointed that you’re Ladybug, I’m not actually disappointed that you’re Ladybug… yeah?”

“Yeah,” Marinette laughed. “That’s only just a little bit confusing.”

“Hey,” Chat shrugged. “That’s our friendship,” he said, making her laugh again.

“I guess,” he sighs, sobering the two of them up from their bout of laughter. “That the thing I am most disappointed about is that this reveal isn’t what I had imagined it to be. M’lady, I wanted you to reveal yourself when you were ready. Instead, this feels like a terrible invasion of privacy. I wanted to know who you were, but only if you wanted me to know. Perhaps we would have made an evening out of it, a picnic on a roof somewhere. And, now that I know who you are, I’d imagine you’d bring pastries and I’d ask if you lived near the bakery, and you’d give me a knowing smile and say something like “oh yeah, I live really close and I know the family really well.”” He tried to imitate Marinette by raising his voice a few octaves but his impression was comically off.

Marinette nodded. “I mean yeah, that does sound like something I’d do.”

“Exactly. And that’s the sort of identity reveal that you deserved, not this — detransforming in an alley beside some dumpster.” He gestured over her shoulder and she turned her neck to see the dumpster in question, she hadn’t noticed it until he pointed it out — she had had other things on her mind. She looked back at him and noticed that he had taken yet another step towards her; now he was standing in front of her, and he reached out and gingerly took her hands in his own. She watched as clawed hands held hers. “You deserve the world, M’lady. That is why I will propose this,” she looked up and into his eyes again. “I’m going to forget this, and tonight at, say… 9 o’clock, I’ll meet you — Ladybug — on the same rooftop I took Marinette to. And Ladybug and I shall have a lovely picnic, snacking on pastries — I hear the Dupain-Cheng bakery has a wonderful selection. And then, if Ladybug so wishes, she might reveal her identity to me. On her own terms, because she wants to… what do you think?”

Marinette smiled and leant forward slightly, pressing her lips against his cheek quickly before whispering in his ear. “I think Ladybug is extremely lucky to have a partner like you, Chat Noir.” She drew back and pulled her hands from his, walking backwards away from him. “I guess I’ll see you tonight,” she winked at him before turning and running out of the alley. 

Perhaps she wasn’t as unlucky as she thought she was.

**Author's Note:**

> Look, is this my best work? probably not. But I'm still super proud of it because I've been in a massive ditch lately and this is the first thing I've written in weeks so yeah. Can you tell I wrote it in like 3 hours really late and night lmao
> 
> Anyways, hope yall liked this. Don't forget to check out the [MLB Fanworks Discord server](https://discord.gg/mlfanworks) It's a wonderful place to meet and talk to fellow fans, and I look forward to seeing you there! (and if you didn't like it, join the discord and come yell at me.)
> 
> As always, thank you for reading and please feel free to leave comments and kudos xxx


End file.
